


First Taste

by Lady_Ganesh



Category: RH Plus
Genre: Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-24
Updated: 2012-12-24
Packaged: 2017-11-22 06:48:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/606989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Ganesh/pseuds/Lady_Ganesh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Michitaka is badly injured, both he and Kiyoi face difficult decisions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Taste

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Daegaer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daegaer/gifts).



Ageha was upset; Kiyoi could tell before he was even through the door. It seemed too serious for Ageha's usual personal crises, but they'd heard nothing unusual lately - could it be a new threat?

"Did you hear?" he said as he came into the mansion, breathless and wide-eyed. Makoto was behind him, jogging to catch up. "The stabbings."

Kiyoi shook his head in confusion.

"At the police station," Ageha panted. "There are three people in the hospital. I don't know if Mister--"

"I'll find out," Kiyoi said, and ran to the phone.

 

The officers who had been injured were all in intensive care, condition uncertain. Kiyoi used his charm and skills to get past the front desk, and his powers to pass the guards and nurses after that. He could smell Michitaka long before he could reach him. His bed was at the far end of the unit, held apart from its fellows by curtains and medical equipment. Michitaka's heartbeat was faltering. He smelled of death already.

Two all too familiar figures sat near the bed. Kiyoi took a deep breath and centered himself. This wouldn't be pleasant for anyone. He pushed his glasses up on his nose and hoped, futilely, that Michitaka's parents wouldn't recognize him.

Of course, it wasn't to be. "What are you doing here?" Douzan's son all but shouted, as his wife pressed on his arm in an attempt to calm him.

So much for fantasy. "I am keeping the promise I made to your father," Kiyoi said, focusing on his heartbeat, willing it to stay slow, willing himself not to reach out and drag the ungrateful child to him by his collar. "To protect his grandson."

"You can do nothing for him," Douzan's son said, standing up and positioning himself between Kiyoi and the hospital bed. "The doctors have said--"

"The doctors," a female voice said from behind him, "have said our son is dying. You know that. I assume you both know that."

Kiyoi bowed at Michitaka's mother. "I am sorry to be here, under these circumstances. I have no desire to interrupt your family life or cause you distress."

"My father neglected his family, my mother. To chase shadows and vampires. It is far too late to--"

"Your father made his own choices," Kioyi said, straightening his tie and suppressing the urge to snap his neck. "And I am not here to discuss them. Your son's heart weakens with every pulse."

Douzan's son opened his mouth to speak, but his wife spoke first.

"You speak of choices," she said. "If you help him … will he have one?"

Kiyoi looked directly at her. Her eyes were raw and red, and her jaw was set firmly. Michitaka may have looked like Douzan's twin, but he had some of his mother, too. He hadn't realized quite how much before now. "It will be difficult," he said. "More difficult than if I had done nothing. But yes, he will have a choice. And he will live to make it."

"Go ahead," she said.

"Mistuko--"

"No," she said sharply. "I gave birth to him. He is my only child. I will not lose him to your anger."

Kiyoi didn't wait to hear anything further. He walked directly to Michitaka's bedside. "It will be easier," he said, "if you do not watch. Please make sure we are not interrupted."

She stood up. "I understand," she said, and took her husband's arm. "He will live," she said. "And he will choose what to do next. To me, that is worth any price."

"There is no price that--"

"Do you think I will forgive you," she asked, "if you try to stop him?"

He said nothing, but he let her turn him away from Michitaka's bedside.

Michitaka looked very small and pale on the bed; the smell of death was growing.

Kiyoi put his mouth to his wrist and opened a vein.

 

Michitaka came to visit him less than a week later. He looked diminished, but his pulse was strong; Kiyoi could smell his blood in Michitaka's veins, still sustaining him.

"The doctors say my recovery is medically impossible," he said, sipping the tea Kiyoi served (a bold Darjeeling, with cream and sugar in the English style). "They think it is a miracle."

"I tried not to overdo it," Kiyoi said, feeling embarrassed. "I'm afraid I haven't done this very often."

"My mother said you told her I would have a choice," he said. "But I feel something, a desire I have never felt before. It is not my thought, not my craving."

Kiyoi put his teacup down. "The craving will get more intense as the days pass," he said, "until you think you will die without blood. But it will pass. My mother said some people never gain the desire to drink, after the craving is gone, but for some people it never passes entirely. I would not have done it if--"

"No," Michitaka said. "I understand. I'm grateful. I just … wanted to know. And if I agree?"

"It will take some time for you to change," Kiyoi said, looking at the edge of Michitaka's shirt cuff, thinking about the veins below. "I would guess it would be at least five years before you noticeably stop aging, probably longer than that. Eventually, of course, you'll have to leave the police force; it will take another decade, perhaps more, before you become a full vampire."

"I see." Michitaka's pulse picked up slightly. "And I will be … dependent on you?"

"Yes," Kiyoi kept his breathing calm. "Until the change is complete. The presence of other full vampires will be distressing; I may be able to mitigate the effects when it comes to Ageha and the others, but vampires who are strangers to us will make you very uncomfortable, at best." He wanted more tea, but now wasn't the time. "The choice must be fully yours. I cannot--"

"What would you want?" Michitaka said abruptly.

"I have no desire to pressure you," Kiyoi said, wanting to reach across the table and grab him, push him against the table, own him once and for all. "I made that error once, and I won't do it again. But I would not have come to your hospital bed if I did not want to offer you the choice."

"Would you want me to be--" His pulse was booming now, louder than the ticking of the clock, even though his voice was little more than a whisper. "Whose face do you see when you look at me, Kiyoi-san?"

Kiyoi had anticipated the question, but that made things no easier. "You have always resembled your grandfather. So much so that at times...." He discarded that thought; it would do neither of them any good. "But you are different from him, as well. You have much of your mother in you. And he wore life so lightly." He glanced up. Michitaka's face was solemn and focused. "You are much more serious. Perhaps that's why he was ready to let go, because he always appreciated how fleeting life could be."

"And he had children," Michitaka said. "I don't think he wanted to outlive Father."

"No," Kiyoi agreed. "He loved you all."

"And this." Michitaka's hands stretched out on the table. "If I say yes-- what is this? What does it feel like?"

"My mother said creating a new vampire was like being in love," Kiyoi said. "It is always different, but it is always the same. What I have with Ageha-kun … he was a child. You are an adult. Your life has been very different. Your desires are different." He smiled. "And of course your personalities...."

For the first time that day, Michitaka returned his smile. "I suppose that's true."

Ageha had wanted love, comfort, warmth, the simple reassurances a child craved. Michitaka would be … more complicated. It had been a long time since Kiyoi had sought out complications.

"And after I am a full vampire, what then? Do we go our separate ways, or are we--"

"You will be able to leave me," he said, "as soon as your transformation is complete. Whether you do will be a choice we will make together. We live long lives, and nothing is certain."

"Thank you," Michitaka said. "For my life, and for your answers."

"I made a promise," Kiyoi said. "And I confess, I was not ready to say farewell to you just yet."

"Nor I, Kioyi-san." Michitaka rose from the table. "I will have to consider this. I … I have grown accustomed to my life as it is. You say the cravings will grow more pronounced?"

Kiyoi nodded. "I am sorry to force your hand in this way. I never--"

"I am alive," Michitaka said. "Don't regret that."

"No," Kiyoi said, and rose. "I will never regret that." He knew it was a risk, and a cheat, but he took Michitaka's hand anyway and raised it to his lips. Michitaka was so impossibly warm; Kiyoi would miss that, if he agreed. He could almost taste the blood under the surface of Michitaka's skin. "It is probably best if we don't see each other until after you have chosen," he said, "and if you refuse, you should not come by the manor."

"Of course," Michitaka said, his heart hammering, his arousal almost as thick as the scent of blood in Kiyoi's nostrils. He took a very long time to let go of Kiyoi's hand.

When he left, Kiyoi shut the door behind him and leaned back against it, willing the cravings to fade. The boys were all at college classes now; he had some time alone to try to calm himself. _I have not lost him,_ he thought to himself. _That is enough._

But of course, it wasn't.

 

It was two more nights before Ageha answered the door, hoping it was the pretty girls he'd tried to impress earlier in the day and had invited back for tea. "Oh!"

Kiyoi knew. Even if his senses hadn't suddenly snapped on to Michitaka's scent, he would have known. "Is Kiyoi-san home?"

"Yes, I'll get him, right away--"

"It's all right," Kiyoi said. "I'm here." He walked into the hallway.

Douzan had never been so hesitant. But this wasn't Douzan. This was another person altogether, and a new set of promises to make.

"I've chosen," Michitaka said.

"Yes," Kiyoi said. "Come in."


End file.
